1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to heat sinks for providing thermal management of electronic devices, including semiconductor chips.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heat buildup within computing devices, such as computers and game consoles, is potentially troublesome not only for the high-power dissipation devices, such as the various processors and memory devices within such devices, but also for all of the other components housed within the device enclosure, including data storage devices, chipsets and even the various passive components on a typical system board. To transfer heat from various internal components, many conventional computing devices incorporate a heat sink in thermal contact with the higher heat dissipating devices along with a cooling fan.
Conventional heat sinks and cooling fans come in a large variety of configurations. Most include multiple thin plates joined or otherwise fastened to a base and spaced closely together. The base is designed to seat on a thermal spreader or lid associated with a given semiconductor device and provide a thermal resistance pathway. In some conventional designs, air is directed past the plates in a direction parallel to the long axes thereof and either allowed to directly exit the plates or first impinge the base and then exit laterally. These parallel flow conventional designs use so-called direct flow. In another variant, air is pulled upward as opposed to being directed downward.
Many current vendors offer different models of heat sinks. Some examples include the Model TR2-R1 CPU Cooler from Thermaltake, the Model CNPS 7500 from Zalman, and the Model SP420B8 CopperStream from Spire.